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Enable Azure Arc for AKS

  • November 25, 2021
  • 5 min read
Cloud and Virtualization Architect and Microsoft MVP. Florent specializes in public, private, and hybrid cloud ecosystems. An MCSE in Private Cloud, he provides technical leadership in Cloud and Datacenter Management. Florent delivers high-authority insights on Azure deployments, virtualization strategy, and optimizing enterprise-scale cloud infrastructure.
Cloud and Virtualization Architect and Microsoft MVP. Florent specializes in public, private, and hybrid cloud ecosystems. An MCSE in Private Cloud, he provides technical leadership in Cloud and Datacenter Management. Florent delivers high-authority insights on Azure deployments, virtualization strategy, and optimizing enterprise-scale cloud infrastructure.


Microsoft released few months ago the possibility to have your Kubernetes cluster in Azure Arc. Now that we have the GitOps integration in Azure Arc (will be the topic of another blog post), we will integrate our AKS cluster in Azure Arc.

Quickstart: Connect an existing Kubernetes cluster to Azure Arc – Azure Arc | Microsoft Docs

Before starting, be sure to have access to the following tools:

– Azure CLI

– Connectedk8s extension

– Helm

– An AKS cluster

– Admin access to the AKS cluster

Search Azure Arc in the Azure Portal and choose to add a Kubernetes cluster:

Search Azure Arc

Give a name, where your AKS cluster will be linked (name of the AKS cluster could be an option) and choose where to create the Azure Arc resource:

Create the Azure Arc resource

In the step 4, you have a script to execute, generated by Microsoft. This script is a bit too light. Let me explain steps that I used to have it working:

A script to execute, generated by Microsoft

# Connect to your Azure Account

az login

# Select the subscription where the AKS cluster is located

az account set --subscription your subscription

# Install the extension

az extension add --name connectedk8s

# Register the 3 providers that will give you the opportunity to do the integration

az provider register -n 'Microsoft.Kubernetes'

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.KubernetesConfiguration

az provider register --namespace Microsoft.ExtendedLocation

# Check that providers are registered

az provider show -n Microsoft.Kubernetes -o table

az provider show -n Microsoft.KubernetesConfiguration -o table

az provider show -n Microsoft.ExtendedLocation -o table

# Get credentials to connect to the AKS cluster

az aks get-credentials -n Starwind -g Starwind

# Enable the integration between Azure Arc and AKS

az connectedk8s connect --name Starwind --resource-group Starwind --location westeurope

The step 4

Integration works well:

Integration works well

You can check if pods have been deployed correctly:

kubectl get deployments,pods -n azure-arc

Check if pods have been deployed correctly

You can validate the step 5 in the Azure Portal. You have now access to your AKS cluster, in Azure Arc:

Access to your AKS cluster

From here, you will be able to:

– Deploy apps from GitOps (another article)

– Install extensions

– Deploy policies

– View and monitor your cluster

This feature is under development, like extension deployment, but it will evolve for sure in few months. Don’t forget to read the article about the integration with GitOps, to automate deployment of your apps, in your AKS cluster.

 

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Taras Shved StarWind HCI Appliance Product Manager
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